Arsenal have no fear in Europe – Wenger

Arsene Wenger says Arsenal have no fear in European away games and believes the Gunners have shown over the years they can beat any opponent.

Arsenal initially struggled in away games when they first made it into the Champions League, drawing with Lens and losing to Dynamo Kiev to crash out in the group stages in 1998-99. 

Draws away to Fiorentina and Barcelona a season later saw them again fail to reach the knockout stages.

Since then they have reached the final in 2005-06 and the semi-finals again in 2008-09, with Wenger claiming the club has gotten rid of the fear that held them back before, although they have not progressed beyond the round of 16 in the previous five campaigns.

“The Champions League was a new competition for us when we first started playing in it. We were in a position where the players made too much of it. The unknown can create a little bit of fear or apprehension,” Wenger told the official Arsenal website.

“Slowly we got rid of that. Since then we have created a positive history. We have won at Real Madrid, we have won at Bayern, we have won in Milan, that shows we shouldn’t be scared. 

“We have won everywhere in Europe. So let’s just go out now and play our game.

“It’s a psychological issue, of course, and you can get rid of these issues by creating history and the number of games you play away from home.”

Irrespective of Wenger’s insistence that Arsenal no longer have any fear in away games, the team have been struggling when they leave their Emirates Stadium home in the Champions League this season. 

They were beaten 2-1 at Dinamo Zagreb in September and were thrashed 5-1 by Bayern Munich last week, consequently finding themselves in fourth place in Group F with just three points from four games played.

The Gunners host Dinamo on November 24 before travelling to Olympiacos on December 9 in their last group game and need to earn a maximum of six points from those two matches to reach the knockout stages, while also needing Bayern to beat Olympiacos on matchday five.